THEATER REVIEW

THEATER REVIEW; 'Fiddler': Endearing Classic

By LEAH D. FRANK

Published: January 15, 1989

A FRIEND of mine says that she can see ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' as many times as it is produced, regardless of the quality of the production. She never tires of it.

That is how I feel about ''Fiddler on the Roof,'' the Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein musical that opened on Broadway in 1964. Even in a sloppy production, such as the one currently at the BayWay Arts in East Islip, ''Fiddler'' remains an endearing classic of the musical stage.

The play, based on a series of short stories by the great Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem, tells the story of Tevye, a poor milkman in the small Russian village of Anatevka.

It is set in czarist Russia in 1905, and the story focuses on one poor family struggling for survival and dignity as forces of historical change take place around them.

''Fiddler's'' theme is the preservation of traditions in a rapidly changing world. Tevye, a man with five daughters, gives his consent for his eldest daughter, Tzeitel, to marry Motel, an impoverished tailor, after he had promised her to Anatevka's rich butcher.

His second daughter, Hodel, leaves for Siberia to marry an imprisoned revolutionary. To consent to Tzeitel's and Hodel's marriages takes a great deal of compromise and discussions with God on the part of Tevye.

However, when his third daughter, Chava, marries a non-Jew, Tevye's ability to bend tradition breaks. In the end, the police destroy the Jewish section of Anatevka, forcing Tevye, his wife Golde and his two youngest daughters to flee to America.

''Fiddler on the Roof,'' with its simple set and costume requirements and its by-now familiar music, is an obvious choice for community and small professional theaters.

The problem with BayWay's production is primarily incompetent direction by Jon Grodeski.

When Tevye's family is gathered in his house, Mr. Grodeski makes no allowance for the logical extension of imaginary walls and has his actors freely pass back and forth through the sides of the house.

The stage, almost from beginning to end, is bathed in yellow light that does nothing more than make the actors look severely jaundiced. Also, too often they look out into the audience as though searching for personal friends or family, which breaks the illusion of being in Anatevka.

When Tevye tricks Golde by relating a dream he had, the fog that comes on stage to indicate a scary dream sequence is not exhausted properly. Instead, it drifts out over the audience and rises to hover around the lighting instruments. The fog lingers through the following scene, breaking the intended mood. The problems of this kind of staging go on and on. The cast, according to the program credits, is an experienced group of semiprofessional players. However, their experience shows primarily in the program.

Nonetheless, ''Fiddler'' is almost a foolproof show, and, in spite of this director and cast, it can still bring a tear or two and an overall good feeling to an audience.